Curiosities & wonders > Titus Livius' Roman history

472
TITOS LIVIUS*
Book V.
' CHAP. XLVIII.
Pestilence. Famine. A Compromise.
But now famine began to distress both parties, more
than all the calamities consequent on the siege of the war.
Add to this, that a pestilential distemper raged among the
Gauls, who were encamped in a valley between two hills,
rendered excessively hot by the flames of the houses, and
smoke issuing from them, at the same time, that the least
blast of wind made not only the dust, but the ashes in¬
supportable. The Gauls, who had been accustomed to
a moist and cold climate, could not support under these
inconveniences, but oppressed with the excessive heat,
and a lowness of spirits, they died like rotten sheep; in¬
somuch, that they could no longer be troubled with bury¬
ing them one by one, but piled them up in heaps pro¬
miscuously, and set fire to them at once; rendering the
place famous, by the name of the Gaul’s burying-place.
After this, a suspension of arms was agreed on by both
parties, during which, by permission of the generals,
the troops had frequent intercourse together; and whilst
the Gauls insisted principally on the short allowance to
which the besieged were reduced, and advised them to
surrender on that account; to remove such thoughts, it
is said, they threw loaves from the capitol, at diflerent
places, into the posts of the enemy.
But, by this time, the famine had risen to such an
height, that it could neither be concealed, nor endured
any longer. Therefore, while the dictator was levying
troops in person at Ardea, having dispatched L. Vale¬
rius, general of the horse, to march the troops from
Veii, and was making every preparation to act on the
offensive with the enemy ; the army in the capitol, quite
exhausted with hard duty and watching, though they
bad bravely surmounted all other human obstacles, a-
gainst the cravings of nature their courage could furnish
them with no antidote, and being every moment on the
watch for assistance from the dictator, at length their
hopes failed, them with the provisions, whilst their en¬
feebled bodies sunk under the pressure of their arms as
they mounted guard, insisted absolutely to surrender,